Au Bon Pain to get creative with Rediffusion Y&R, Kolkata

Au Bon Pain (ABP), the US based chain of casual dining and bakery cafes, has touched the shores of India. It has entered the country through a tie up with Spencer's Retail, the multi-format retail chain of RPG Enterprises, which offers a range of products from food options, fruits and vegetables to household needs, consumer durables and home décor. The creative duties for Au Bon Pain have been entrusted with Rediffusion Y&R, Kolkata.

The win for Rediffusion Y&R, Kolkata does not come following a multi agency pitch – the agency has been awarded the business keeping in mind the long standing and flourishing relationship of three years that the agency has shared with Spencer's Retail.

In a release to the media, Samar Singh Sheikhawat, vice-president, marketing, Spencer’s Retail, says, “Rediffusion Y&R has been a part of Spencer’s journey for some time now, and awarding them the ABP account was a natural progression of the faith and trust we have in the team.”

ABP will not compete with coffee chains. It will look at places such as Thank God It's Friday (TGIF) and Subway as its competition. KFC and McDonald's are equally considered as part of its competition stream, though in a finer sense, says Dasgupta.

Beginning Bengaluru, where they plan to have three cafes for starters, ABP will extend to cities such as Hyderabad and Chennai too. All this action to come up for the brand in Q3 this year, reveals Sheikhawat.

Without revealing numbers, Sheikhawat says that 5 per cent of the brand's revenues would be streamlined for the marketing efforts of the brand.

In terms of the utilisation of media for ABP, Sheikhawat is sure that it shall be local catchments that would have a prominent role to play. For instance, he talks about setting up a cafe in the new IT park built in Bengaluru - there activations such as executive meals, executive lunches and employee dicounts for the companies operating out of that area would be the kind of brand building and marketing initiatives that are being considered.

The brand would also look at high-street marketing at some point of time which is essentially done through traditional media; it would include outdoor and print advertising. Mall activations through dropdowns and banners would also be taken up.

Originally, in the US, ABP is present largely in hospitals due to its focus on low calorie food, tells Sheikhawat, so in India that would be implemented gradually too. Transportation channels are also on the list.

For the record, Spencer’s Retail tied up with Au Bon Pain in July 2008 to launch the chain across the country. ABP plans to set up 100 standalone cafes in the next two years in India.

The Boston based fast casual dining and bakery chain currently operates more than 280 outlets in the US, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.